Jorge Gonzalez, Ex-Miami Beach City Manager, Now Says He Might Run For Mayor

Jorge Gonzalez hasn't been seen or heard from in nearly seven months. That was July 8, when the then Miami Beach city manager stepped down amid public outrage over seemingly rampant corruption on the island.

Now, however, Gonzalez is mulling a remarkable return to Miami Beach politics.

"I may run for mayor. I may run for commission," he told New Times. "The last chapter of Jorge Gonzalez hasn't been written yet."

Gonzalez cast his potential return to politics as a question of justice.

"Injustice somewhere is a threat to justice everywhere," he said, quoting Martin Luther King, Jr. "If there is injustice going on, you don't just leave it alone."

Gonzalez, who left office in the wake of the April 11 arrests of seven city employees, including top code compliance officer Jose Alberto and two Miami Beach firefighters, says his departure had nothing to do with that federal crackdown.

Instead, Gonzalez said he was the one who brought the investigation to State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle in the first place.

"Me not being city manager has nothing to do with corruption," he said. "I'm no longer city manager because of politics."

Pressed on whether he'll run for mayor or city commissioner, he demurred.

Michael E. Miller was the senior writer at the Miami New Times. For five years, he covered everything Florida could throw at him. He got an innocent man off of murder charges and got a bad cop suspended from duty. He flew in homemade airplanes, dove into the Atlantic in a tiny submarine, and skateboarded a marathon. He smoked stogies, interviewed strippers, and narrowly survived a cavity search in a Panamanian jungle prison — all in the name of journalism. His only regret is that one time he outed Colombian drug lords for sneaking strippers into Miami jail. For that, he says lo siento. He was only doing his job. Miller’s work for New Times won many national awards including back-to-back Sigma Delta Chi medallions. He has also written for the New York Times, Newsweek, The Atlantic, Chicago Magazine, Village Voice, the New York Daily News, and VQR. He now covers foreign affairs for the Washington Post.